Rick Fagel (born November 29, 1953) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player from the

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Career

Fagel played collegiate tennis at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and won the

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Championship in 1972, beating

Vitas Gerulaitis Vytautas "Vitas" Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 – September 17, 1994) was an American professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1978. Gerulaitis won the men's si ...

in the final.ATP World Tour Profile
/ref> He appeared in 14

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during his career. His best performance came at the 1977 US Open, where he reached the third round, with wins over Russell Simpson and Antonio Munoz. He was a mixed doubles quarter-finalist at the 1981 French Open, with German

Eva Pfaff Eva Pfaff (born 10 February 1961) is a German former professional tennis player. Career During her career, she won one singles title and nine doubles titles on the WTA Tour. Her peak world rankings in the sport were 17th in singles (in 1983) an ...

as his partner. En route they defeating a pairing consisting of

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former World number 1 ranked female tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in w ...

and

Ilie Năstase Ilie Theodoriu Năstase (; born 19 July 1946) is a Romanian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the inaugural world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 40 weeks. Năstase is one of ten play ...

. Fagel defeated

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

at the

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Grand Prix tournament in 1977.''

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''
"Teenage Star Scores Upset"
July 16, 1977, p 16 He was eliminated at the semi-final stage, by Mark Cox. The following year he made the quarter-finals of the Florence Open. In 1980 he and partner David Carter were doubles runners-up at the

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Grand Prix.

Grand Prix career finals

Doubles: 1 (0–1)

Challenger titles

Singles: (1)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fagel, Rick 1953 births Living people American male tennis players Columbia Lions men's tennis players Tennis players from Florida 20th-century American sportsmen